Practical pointers for brick and tile producers

This contribution draws on practical, day-to-day brickyard experience. Certain problems encountered repeatedly by any number of producers can be recognized and rectified by watching how things are done and talking to the employees concerned.

Better information and workforce training – perhaps provided in part by external experts – help achieve consistently cost-efficient, energy-saving production of high-quality articles.

1 Introduction

In the production of backing bricks, as elsewhere, cost reduction is an increasingly significant topic of discussion. Optimized purchasing procedures and minimized energy consumption are the options that come to mind first. Then come advanced technical equipment options with which to lower the cost of operation – read: rational manufacture – and, finally, cutting costs by virtue of well-informed, well-motivated employees.

While “everyone” is aware of the importance of good procedures and of thinking before doing, there is usually still plenty of room for improvement. In over 40...

Related articles:

Issue 5/2020 Anne Tretau1, Ralf Wagner2, Frank Bonitz2, S. Alireza Pakdaman Shahri1

Material-specific moisture determination during brick drying

1 Introduction The objective of drying green bricks is to remove any water necessary for plastic shaping prior to ceramic firing. For this purpose, convection drying is used. Control of the dryer in...

more
Issue 11/2012

Formation of pores and voids during the end phase of drying green bricks with swelling additive content

1 Context and formulation of problem Employed as organic additives, paper sludge and sawdust serve to induce the formation of pores and voids in vertically perforated clay bricks. For reasons of...

more
Issue 09/2013 IMJ brick works in Fesdis, Algeria

The IMJ brick plant – partner to Algeria’s booming construction sector

1 Introduction The plant in Fesdis stands in answer to a solicitation by the Algerian government in pursuance of an ambitious project of vital importance for the people of Algeria: the construction...

more
Issue 08/2009

Preserving Brickmaking Tradition – the Tuilerie-Briqueterie Pierre Lanter, Hochfelden-Alsace/France

1 Company History The history of the Lanter brickmaking family begins with Jacques Pfister, who practised the trade of the brickmaker around 1800 in Hochfelden/Alsace. Of his four sons, Anton Pfister...

more
Issue 4/2011

Recycling of waste-based materials in the clay brick industry

1 General It is important to distinguish between “additions” to the clay body (such as, for example, sawdust or paper sludge) and “substitutions” (such as, for example, sewage sludge, fly ash or...

more